Study of a Standing Man with Headcloth and Two Studies of his Hands

Study of a Standing Man with Headcloth and Two Studies of his Hands

Wilhelm Schadow

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Finely executed with a silvery graphite and gently highlighted with white chalk, this drawing presents a life study of a sacerdotal figure in a romanticized medieval headcloth. At the bottom the artist repeated an enlarged and detailed study of the figure’s hands. The figure on top was then squared in black chalk for enlargement. Schadow was a main exponent of the Nazarene movement in Germany, which was driven by an authentic admiration for the Italian Renaissance and its tradition of drawing. He was also the celebrated director of the Düsseldorfer Malerschule (Düsseldorf School of Painting) during the 1830s and 1840s.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of a Standing Man with Headcloth and Two Studies of his HandsStudy of a Standing Man with Headcloth and Two Studies of his HandsStudy of a Standing Man with Headcloth and Two Studies of his HandsStudy of a Standing Man with Headcloth and Two Studies of his HandsStudy of a Standing Man with Headcloth and Two Studies of his Hands

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.